The international community has reaffirmed the importance of education and good-quality training in

improving the living conditions of individuals, communities and entire societies. Drawing many useful lessons
from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the new sustainable development goal 4 goes beyond
children's primary education, highlighting in particular the link between basic education and vocational
training. Furthermore, it emphasises equity and quality of education in a life-long learning approach, two
aspects which were not addressed in the MDGs.
Goal 4 aims to ensure that all children, adolescents and adults – especially those most marginalised and
vulnerable – have access to education and training appropriate to their needs and the context in which they
live. This makes education a contributing factor in making the world more secure, sustainable and
interdependent.

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

4.1: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary
and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes
4.2: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood
development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education
4.3: By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality
technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant
skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and
entrepreneurship
4.5: By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all
levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with
disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations
4.6: By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and
women, achieve literacy and numeracy
4.7: By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote
sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable
development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a
culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural
diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development
4.a: Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive
and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all
4.b: By 2020, substantially expand globally the number of scholarships available to
developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing
States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational
training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and
scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries
4.c: By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through
international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least
developed countries and small island developing States
https://www.eda.admin.ch/agenda2030/en/home/agenda-2030/die-17-ziele-fuer-eine-
nachhaltige-entwicklung/ziel-4-inklusive-gleichberechtigte-und-hochwertige-bildung.html

ustainable Development Goal 4 aims at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong

learning opportunities for all. This goal ensures that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary

schooling by 2030. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training, to eliminate gender and

wealth disparities and achieve universal access to a quality higher education.

stimates show that, among those 59 million children, 1 in 5 of them had dropped out and recent trends suggest that 2
in 5 of out-of-school children will never set foot in a classroom. The Sustainable Development Goals clearly
recognise that this gap must be closed, even as the international community more explicitly addresses the challenges
of quality and equity in education.
https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/space4sdgs/sdg4.html

Ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and
quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and
Goal-4 effective learning outcomes
Ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills
needed to promote sustainable development, including, among
others, through education for sustainable development and
sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a
culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship
and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to
sustainable development
Ensure equal access for all women and mento affordable and
quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including
university
Substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have
relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for
employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
uild and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and
gender sensitive and provide safe, nonviolent, inclusive and
effective learning environments for all
Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal
access to all levels of education and vocational training for the
vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples
and children in vulnerable situation
Substantially expand globally the number of scholarships
available to developing countries, in particular, least developed
countries, small island developing States and African countries, for
enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and
information and communications technology, technical, engineering
and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other
developing countries
Ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults,
both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy
ubstantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including
through international cooperation for teacher training in developing
countries, especially least developed countries and small island
developing states
https://sdg.neda.gov.ph/goal-4/

Free skills training, assessments and other benefits, as applicable

under TESDA scholarship programs, namely:
1. Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP). The TWSP
seeks to support rapid, inclusive and sustained economic growth
through course offerings in priority industries and key employment
generators such as agrifishery/agri-business/agro-industrial, tourism,
information technology-business process management (lT-BPM),
semi-conductor and electronics, automotive, other priority
manufacturing industries, logistics, general infrastructure, and new
and emerging sectors. The program is addressing poverty reduction
through TVET for Global Competitiveness and WET for Job
Readiness; and
2. Private Education Student Financial Assistance (PESFA). This
program was established through Section 8 of Republic Act No.
8545, otherwise known as the Expanded Government Assistance to
Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) Act. PESFA
offers educational grants to qualified and deserving college
freshmen both in degree and nondegree courses. The program seeks
to: extend financial assistance to marginalized but deserving
students in postsecondary nondegree courses; promote TVET;
contribute to the development of a competent skilled workforce; and
assist private institutions in their development efforts by assuring a
steady supply of enrollees to their course offerings. The PESFA
directed the beneficiaries on the choices of careers to the critical
skills requirements of indemand jobs in the labor market. It also
allows for equity distribution of the opportunities made available
through government subsidies.
Alternative Delivery Modes (ADMs)
Two of the major ADMs of DepEd include the Modified In-School,
Off-School Approach (MISOSA) and the Enhanced Instructional
Management by Parents, Community, and Teachers (e-IMPACT)
MISOSA. MISOSA involves subdividing congested classes (with
more than 50 students) in Grades 4, 5, and 6 into an in-School
Group with classroom and subject teachers and an Off-School
Group with para- or volunteer teachers. E-IMPACT on the other
hand is a technology-enhanced ADM that addresses issues in
accessibility and quality of education in schools handled by a few
teachers teaching multigrade classes, and allows learners who are
otherwise prone to prolonged or seasonal absences to enter and exit
when needed, learning from modules with the support of fellow
learners, family members, and the community, and their
progress/advancement measured via mastery tests taken in the
school.
Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education
The Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (RA
10931) which was signed into law last August 2017, provides for
free tuition and other school fees in state universities and colleges,
local universities and colleges, and state-run technical-vocational
institutions, establishing the tertiary education subsidy and student
loan program, and strengthens the Unified Student Financial
Assistance System for Tertiary Education.
https://sdg.neda.gov.ph/goal-4/
The UN describes the goal of Quality Education as
ensuring “inclusive and equitable quality education and
[promoting] lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
Some of the targets the UN lists for SDG 4 include
ensuring that children have:

Access to pre-primary education

 A free primary and secondary (K-12) education
 Options for affordable technical, vocational, and
higher education options (such as college and
university)
But it’s not enough for education to be accessible. It
also has to add value to the lives of students. In Niger,
for instance, enrollment has gone up for primary
schools. But many Nigerien students complete their
primary education and still lack basic yet vital skills
like literacy. This leaves them unprepared for the job
market, and gives them very little hope for breaking
the cycle of poverty.

This is why the word “quality” is important. Schools and

grades are key elements of an education. But if we’re
investing time and resources into educating the next
generation, we need some standard that can be used to
measure how effective that education is. Better yet, we
need some standards to measure quality that can be
applied everywhere from Argentina to Zimbabwe.

an individual can seek better job opportunities, progress with sustainable

livelihoods, and have a healthy lifestyle.

 Before the coronavirus crisis, projections showed that more

than 200 million children would be out of school, and only 60
per cent of young people would be completing upper
secondary education in 2030.

 Before the coronavirus crisis, the proportion of children and

youth out of primary and secondary school had declined from
26 per cent in 2000 to 19 per cent in 2010 and 17 per cent in
2018.

 More than half of children that have not enrolled in school live
in sub-Saharan Africa, and more than 85 per cent of
children in sub-Saharan Africa are not learning the minimum

 617 million youth worldwide lack basic mathematics and

literacy skills.

 Some 750 million adults – two thirds of them women –

remained illiterate in 2016. Half of the global illiterate
population lives in South Asia, and a quarter live in sub-
Saharan Africa.

 In 10 low- and middle-income countries, children with

disabilities were 19per cent less likely to achieve minimum
proficiency in reading than those without disabilities.

 4 million refugee children were out of school in 2017

https://jointsdgfund.org/sustainable-development-goals/goal-4-quality-education
At least 24 million students
could drop out of school due
to the coronavirus
pandemic, UN says
 At the height of Covid-19,” 192 countries shuttered schools, leaving
1.6 billion students without in-person learning, said Henrietta Fore,
executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund.

 “At least 24 million children are projected to drop out of school due
to Covid-19,” she added.

 The reopening of schools has become a hot-button issue,

particularly in the U.S., where President Donald Trump has pushed
to reopen schools regardless of how widely the virus is spreading in
the community.